Power, Beauty and Cleopatra: Bookbabe Review of Cleopatra: A Life by Stacy Schiff

Sometimes I really want to read something challenging; different from the fiction that I usually read. However, maybe biographies by Stacy Schiff should be avoided. Over the past year I have attempted to read Cleopatra: A Life and found myself finally jumping ship. While the book was interesting and painted Cleopatra in a very glorious and flawed light it failed to hold my interest. I felt like the book was disorganized. I felt like it jumped all over the place; though sometimes the prose was wonderful and well written the book simply fell flat. 

I will say that I do not regret reading the book. It was a good read; I learned some very interesting things about a woman that history often paints as a home wrecker. Cleopatra was well read, a women of great intellect. She was well spoken and could hold her own, she was a woman of great strength. Also, she took no shit. I think women living in our time could learn a thing or two from this queen of ancient Egypt. 

Here are some of the quotes I loved:

"Friends often turn into enemies in time of disaster, he conceded (Caesar). He might equally well have noted that at times of disaster enemies reinvent themselves as friends."

"Herodotus: "Egyptian women ventured into the markets while the men sat at home tending their looms...women urinate standing up, the men sitting down"

"Cleopatra had every reason to believe she hailed from a superior world. No one in Rome had a pedigree to rival hers. It bothered Cicero that she seemed to know as much."

"Sometimes It seemed as if there were only ten women in Rome...and Mark Antony has slept with every one of them."

"If one prefers not to be perceived as a King, one is ill advised, for starters, to spend one's time consorting with a queen."

And just for fun; here are some photos found on Pinterest....sharing because they are just awesome..

The Bookbabe Reviews: The Bookman's Tale by Charlie Lovett

When I first started this book I really did not know what to expect; I took it upon myself to avoid reading reviews this was to insure that I would not be tainted by what others thought of the book. This book is a book of three stories; its about a young man grieving the lost of his first love and wife. Its a tale of lost documents and books; its a tale about the lies people are willing to tell and sometimes murder for. My favorite things about this book was the complexity of the main character Peter Byerly. Peter is a young man trying to find his way back after the sudden death of his wife Amanda. He abandons his home in South Carolina and ventures across the pond to England and a small cottage to get away from everything. While there he finally decides to venture out and ends up in a small bookshop where he comes across a watercolor of a woman that looks like Amanda. While some people would have just thought that finding the photo was an uncanny coincidence; Peter can't let it go. This leads him to a watercolor society meeting in London where he crosses paths with Liz Sutcliffe; an editior that is working with an author on a book that is linked to B.B. The mysterious artist that created the watercolor that Peter just some happened to have discovered. The tale takes us on a journey between the time of Shakepeare, 1995 England, and Ridgefield college in the 1980's. Well we are getting flash backs we are learning more about out main character and the mystery that surrounds forged documents, an extramartial affair and blackmail. The beauty of this book is that it is a book for book lovers; if you love a good mystery, a beautiful romance or a book about over coming grief and anxiety then this is the book for you. I can definitely say that I would recommend and perhapd have a give away from a copy of the book. 

Other Books by Charlie Lovett:

First Impressions: A Novel of Old Books, Unexpected Love, and Jane Austen

Favorite Quotes from the Book: 

"....all sense of dread and panic banished by the simple act of losing himself in an old book"

"Well," said Francis, "forgery is telling lies. And no matter how good a liar you are, if you tell enough of them, you can dig yourself a hole so deep that the only way out seems to be murder"

Overall rating: 4.5 stars